On Monday night there was a fire in the transformers of a substation at around 1.40 a.m. in the Baden-Württemberg city Reutlingen to a serious power outage. 7,600 households and around 30,000 people could not be supplied with electricity again by midday on Monday.
However, the power supply had already been restored for the citizens in the core city of Reutlingen early in the morning. In Betzingen, Ohmenhausen, Wannweil and Kirchentellinsfurt, however, the power supply was interrupted for a longer period of time. Reutlingen has almost 120,000 inhabitants and is located on the edge of the Swabian Alb.
“We assume that this is most likely an arson attack,” said Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on ZDF on Monday evening. Necessary leads have been identified. “Now it’s a matter of continuing to investigate in all directions in order to determine the basis for this arson attack and the perpetrators,” said the CSU politician.
State security and the anti-terror center are investigating
The Baden-Württemberg Interior Minister had previously done so Manuel Hagel (CDU) in Reutlingen said that investigators suspect “intentional arson and disruption of public operations.” The state security and the anti-terror center of the State Criminal Police Office have taken over the investigation: “We will bring the perpetrators to account with all severity,” Hagel continued. A “Fischer” investigative group was founded. However, it is still too early for a final assessment. It will also be clarified whether “there is really an arson attack or even a terrorist act”. The state interior minister announced that he would send a police force to Reutlingen for the night from Monday to Tuesday in order to strengthen the feeling of security in the areas without electricity.
According to information from the Reutlingen police headquarters, it was initially less clear on Monday morning whether the cause of the fire could be a technical defect or arson. The SWR and the “Reutlinger Generalanzeiger” reported during the course of the day that employees of the network operators had registered evidence of arson. Three fire spots were identified on the substation site, and employees of the operating company also discovered damage to a fence. Since the early hours of the morning, 195 firefighters have been on duty due to the large-scale fire power failure There were five follow-up missions.
Clinic also affected by power outage
The Reutlingen Clinic with 760 beds and around 2,600 employees had to immediately switch to emergency power supply due to the nighttime power outage; the clinic staff primarily cared for patients who were being ventilated in their private apartments or houses. At around 6 a.m., the clinic had power from the grid again for the first time, but because there were brief voltage peaks when the power was switched on, 400 medical devices had to be checked, according to clinic manager Dominik Nusser. Doctors had to postpone ten planned operations. At 10 a.m., the clinic was once again supplied with electricity from the grid, said Nusser.
In Reutlingen and in some smaller communities affected by the power outage, the mayors set up administrative staff; They should organize help in the current emergency situation and, for example, ensure electricity supply for nursing homes or control the operation of sewage treatment plants so that damage to the environment is avoided. The employees of the network provider Netze BW work in shifts. When the power supply is restored, care will be taken to ensure that private households are supplied first, and commercial businesses second. The Ohmenhausen and Betzingen districts should be supplied with electricity again on Monday evening, and from around 8 p.m. the Wannweil district and the neighboring municipality of Kirchentellinsfurt in the Tübingen district should also be supplied with electricity again.
The power outage in Reutlingen and the question of whether the fire was caused by a possibly politically motivated attack brought the Württemberg city into the national headlines on Monday. The reason for this is the presumably left-wing extremist attack on the power supply in Berlin in January: On January 3rd, an attack on a cable bridge in Berlin-Lichterfelde caused the longest power outage in Berlin’s post-war history; 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses in southwest Berlin were not supplied with electricity in the cold winter and for several days. The authorities had evaluated a letter of responsibility from the left-wing extremist “Vulkan Group”.
The Governing Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner (CDU), had come under fire for the so-called tennis court affair and for its poor crisis management. Wegner initially tried to manage the crisis situation not from the Red Town Hall, but – after a visit to the tennis court – from his private office. Presumably for this reason and to differentiate it from the situation in Berlin, District Administrator Ulrich Fiedler expressly praised the “excellent cooperation” that had been achieved in Reutlingen at “different levels” on Monday.
